Inside the Nudge Unit
David Halpern's Inside the Nudge Unit is the inside story of the Behavioural Insights Team, the world's first government department specifically designed to apply behavioral economics to public policy. Halpern, a Cambridge social psychologist, was recruited by David Cameron's coalition government in 2010 to set up a small unit inside Number Ten that would test whether subtle changes to letters, forms, and default choices could nudge citizens toward better health, better tax compliance, and better educational outcomes. The book walks through the unit's most influential experiments, from rewriting tax demand letters to dramatically increase on time payment to redesigning organ donation registration to opt out, and explains why randomized controlled trials inside government were such a quiet revolution. Halpern also writes candidly about the political negotiations required to keep the unit alive across changes of administration and about its later spinoff from the civil service into an independent social purpose company. The result is a clear, practical primer on how behavioral science meets the messy reality of policy.
Themes & atmosphere
What you might want to know about Inside the Nudge Unit
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
The director of Britain's Behavioural Insights Team writes about how the small unit was set up inside the UK government, the experiments it ran, and what happens when behavioral economics gets a budget.
The Behavioural Insights Team, originally a UK government unit known as the Nudge Unit, applies behavioral science to public policy. David Halpern was its founding chief executive. The book chronicles the team's projects and approach.
Reading Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein's Nudge first gives the conceptual foundation. Inside the Nudge Unit is more about institutional implementation. Both are useful entry points to behavioral economics in public policy.
Inside the Nudge Unit was written by David Halpern, published in 2015 by Ebury Publishing.
Inside the Nudge Unit is 400 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Inside the Nudge Unit takes most readers 6 to 9 hours to finish.
Inside the Nudge Unit is a standalone novel by David Halpern, not part of a series.
Inside the Nudge Unit is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.